


Hell

by theonewithabbey



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 3.22, Angst, Death, F/M, Loss, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 13:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10967847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonewithabbey/pseuds/theonewithabbey
Summary: 3x22. Iris can't be dead, she can't be.





	Hell

**Author's Note:**

> Short, but I had to.

It’s like a dream.

Watching everything unravel before him, just how it was supposed to, and knowing he has no say in the matter anymore. That it happened, it’s happening, she’s dying.

Scratch that, it’s a nightmare.

And it’s nothing like before, when he was watching the scene from afar, because this time it’s inevitable. This time it’s real; it’s the present, not the future. And this time he doesn’t just see it or hear it, but he can feel it. He can feel the power draining out of himself as he runs towards the unavoidable, he can feel the pins and needles bouncing across his skin as he thinks to himself that there’s no use, he can’t stop this. He can feel it all. And he can feel himself break when he watches Savitar’s hand pass through her body and she takes her last breath, the light leaving her eyes forever.

He catches her and Savitar is long gone, but Barry doesn’t care. Because all he can think about is Iris, Iris, _Iris_. And he’s shaking her, over and over again and he’s yelling, screaming, begging her to wake up, to open her eyes because she’s not dead, she’s not. She’s Iris Ann West: a beautiful, intelligent, groundbreaking journalist, his fiancée, the love of his life and _she can’t die._

He screams into the night, screams until his lungs can’t handle it anymore, until his voice breaks and his throat hurts so much he can hardly breathe. People can hear him, he knows that and he doesn’t care. His cowl’s down so anyone could see him and he doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter, nothing does.

Her eyes, the ones that hold all of her thoughts and emotions, won’t open again. The same eyes that laid upon his all those years ago, the same eyes that held many secrets and lies when they were young, eyes that held tears after all the people she had lost. Eyes that smiled, laughed, cried and frowned.

A smile full of equal amounts of light and darkness, wiped away forever. A smile that appeared easily, that was forced often. A smile that could mend wounds and cure all diseases, never to be used again.

A life, lost forever.

He doesn’t keep track of time; of how long he stays there, holding her in his arms. To him, the seconds feel like minutes, minutes feeling like hours, hours feeling like an eternity. But eventually, the sun rises and night becomes morning and Cisco is there, pulling at him, telling him he has to move, he has to go.

And Barry get’s it. He knows that they’re in public and it’s daytime and that anyone could see them, but he can’t. He can feel the fatigue in his eyes, begging, pleading for sleep, but he _can’t._ He can’t let go of her, of this moment.

Soon, Cisco is back with someone else (he thinks it’s Joe, coming to take his daughter away, but he cant bring himself to look) and she’s being torn from him. And Barry’s crying again and fighting to not let go, but he doesn’t have any power left in him to give much of a fight. And soon, she’s gone and he’s screaming her name out again, over and over.

He’s faintly aware of the change of scenery during his cries, and thinks he remembers Cisco giving him water and some sort of pill.

The image of her face: cold, empty, emotionless, is burned into his vision and is the last thing he sees before everything goes black.


End file.
